2. Commentaries on the Books of Scripture will be an excellent method of conveying the best religious knowledge. This is a department, however, which requires, more than any other, the assistance of that wisdom which is from above. The words of St. Paul, in 1 Cor. ii. 10-16 and iii. 10-15, should impress the mind of every Commentator on Scripture with the deepest awe.

3. Catechisms, especially Scriptural Catechisms, are an admirable kind of book for general distribution. There are few pious parents or children in England, but can bear testimony to the great assistance and benefit derived from this description of publications.

4. Books of a didactic nature, explaining the Doctrines or recommending the Precepts of the Gospel; Sermons, Essays, &c.

5. Narrative Tracts, and Dialogues on religious subjects.

6. Critical explanations and illustrations of the Sacred Scriptures.

III. HISTORY, Ecclesiastical and Profane; and Biography.

1. Ecclesiastical History, of the best kind, is such as that of Milner; aiming to give the History, so far as it can be gathered, of the true Members of the Spiritual Church of Christ. The learned controversies, the heresies, the contentions, the political intrigues, the cruel wars-how fearful, and yet how true to fact is this climax!-exhibited by such a

Apocryphal Books were scattered about on the Church floor. This story was communicated to the Author by a Greek Ecclesiastic at Jerusalem, who firmly believed it: very probably it may exist in print.

work as that of Mosheim, fix on the professors of Christianity a character very far from Christian: the knowledge obtained from that work is highly important, but of the most painful nature.

2. Profane History, Ancient and Modern, furnishes much instructive matter. The principle on which Rollin's Ancient History is written, that of blending with facts a view of the accomplishment of prophecies, and illustrating the constant govern, ment of God in the affairs of nations, is one most worthy to be adopted. Without some such leading principle in the mind, it would be painful, without being profitable, to read the History of Mankind, in which crimes and miseries constitute the largest proportion of the story.

3. Biography, ever the most generally interest! ing branch of reading, would furnish a great variety of matter. For translation into the Oriental Languages, that kind of Biography should be selected, which tends to illustrate character and principles; avoiding such parts as refer to peculiar modes of life or forms of society, which could not be made intelligible to foreign readers. The most beautiful specimen extant in the English Language of this kind of writing, the Lives of Donne, Wotton, Hooker, Herbert, and Sanderson, by Isaac Walton, would for the most part be incomprehensible in an Arabic Version; but from Fox's History of the Martyrs, from the account of the deaths of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, much might be selected, which would touch the best feelings of the heart in every clime. A well-prepared account of the Life and Opinions of St. Augustine would also be a valuable piece of Biography for these parts.

4. GEOGRAPHY and CHRONOLOGY Would be re

quisite to the elucidation of History; and books upon Geography, more especially, would give opportunity for introducing much entertaining and profitable matter, relative to the natural productions, remarkable curiosities, &c. of different kingdoms. The customs, especially the religious customs, of different countries might be so described and delineated, as to answer important Christian purposes; exhibiting, in a judicious and compassionate manner, the wanderings and delusions of nations unblest with the light of the Gospel. The articles under the head of "Miscellanies," which are given in some of the Numbers of the Missionary Register, furnish a good specimen of the thing intended.

Several other branches of useful knowledge might be enumerated; but those which have been specified seem to comprehend nearly every thing that can possibly claim the attention of a Missionary. His calling is one which must necessarily limit his pursuits to such subjects as have a religious bearing. It has, indeed, in later times, been attempted to render matters of Science-for example, Chemistry, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Astronomy, &c.— popular and familiar to all classes in England, by means of Scientific Catechisms. Whether this will tend to the real augmentation of Science in our own country is a question which probably will not admit of a solution, till at least one generation shall have tried the experiment. The translation, however, of such books into foreign languages may safely be left to secular persons: for wherever civilization shall have so far advanced, as to create a demand for this kind of knowledge, there will not be wanting men ready to engage in supplying it.

IMAGE-WORSHIP,

AND

INVOCATION OF SAINTS.

IS not that man, think you, unwise, that will run for water to a little brook, when he may as well go to the head-spring? Even so may his wisdom be justly suspected, that will flee unto Saints in time of necessity, when he may, boldly and without fear, declare his grief and direct his prayer unto the Lord himself.

(Homily of the Church of England concerning Prayer.)

Shall God's Word-by God commanded to be read unto all, and known of all-for danger of heresy, as they say, be shut up? And idols and images, notwithstanding they be forbidden by God, and notwithstanding the danger of idolatry by them, shall they yet be set up, suffered and maintained, in Churches and Temples? O worldly and fleshly wisdom! ever bent to maintain the inventions and traditions of men, by carnal reason; and, by the same, to disannul or deface the holy ordinances, laws, and honour of the eternal God!

(Homily of the Church of England against Peril of Idolatry.)

THE invention of other Mediators between God and Man, than Christ Jesus; to be invoked, consequently, by prayer-and the attempt to conduct religious worship with the help of graven images, or likenesses, or reliques-these are two of the greatest errors, by which professing Christians have defaced the Gospel, and dishonoured the God revealed to us in the Bible. They are combined and interwoven with all the religious notions and offices of the Romish and Oriental Churches; while this multiplication of Mediators is an outrage to the

doctrine of the all-sufficient mediation of Christ, as presumptuous as Pagan Polytheism is to the doctrine of the Unity of God.

To exemplify this statement, it would be sufficient to turn to Ecclesiastical History, that part especially which refers to the Eighth Century; or to quote the various Liturgical Books of Rome and the East; or actually to visit their Churches, and observe the ceremonies of these denominations of Christians.

In the following pages, a selection is made from various authentic documents, which may serve to illustrate the character and tendencies of this twofold kind of Idolatry; a superstition, in which both the OBJECT and the MEANS of devotion are of human invention, and alike opposed to the tenor of the revealed will of God.

An image or picture of the Virgin Mary is set up, in a Church, in the corner of a street, in a private room, or before the eyes of a sick or dying man: or, perhaps, it is carried in procession, gorgeously arrayed; while the gazing multitude, with uncovered head and bended knee, cry in prayer, " Mother of God, hear us!--Mother of God, pray for us!" This instance is adduced, as illustrating the complex act of Idolatry hereby performed: a person, not the proper object of prayer, is invoked; and the spirit of devotion toward her is stimulated, by the exhibition of pomp suited to gratify the lust of the eye. This kind of idolatrous display is very general in the Mediterranean*; not less general,

of

The Author is here speaking from pretty extensive means observation in Malta, the Ionian Islands, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Syria.